


Unnecessary Risks

by StonesFics



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Riku is a little too self sacrificial, post-quadratum, someone get these boys some therapy please
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-17 17:46:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29475681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StonesFics/pseuds/StonesFics
Summary: Then out of the corner of his eye Riku saw the glint of the barrel of a gun. One of the pirates lifted it, aiming it straight at Sora who was none the wiser. He wouldn’t see it in time and wouldn’t be able to react. In the blink of an eye, Riku saw it all play out in his mind.He couldn’t lose Sora again.Before he could even think, Riku burst across the deck and leaped, twisting his body to intercept the bullet. The only thing going through his head was 'not again.'
Relationships: Riku & Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 64





	Unnecessary Risks

Riku blocked and parried, striking the pirate on the other side of the blade and sending him off balance. Another pirate immediately followed but wasn’t able to get past a well-timed guard and was thrown off of his feet by a watera. And then Riku was turning and catching another sword before it could hit and quickly disarming the man.

Honestly, Sora was like a magnet for danger and it was ridiculous. The two of them had come to the Carribean to take a much needed day off from Keyblade Master stuff. Sora had wanted to show him his ship and some of his favorite places in the area. And, for the most part, the day had gone as planned and they had a fun time.

However, apparently there were dangers other than some heartless ships on the seven seas. A pirate ship much larger than Sora’s had set their sights on them and decided to put up their sails and board them. So now they were fending off an entire real pirate crew by themselves.

Guard, thundaga, cura, parry. 

Thankfully the two had magic and potions‒or, Riku  _ had _ potions but ended up using them. He hadn’t had many to begin with as he wasn’t expecting a battle. At least the crew seemed to be thinning a bit and hopefully the battle wouldn’t be going too much longer. 

Riku spun and glanced at the other side of the deck hoping to catch a glimpse of Sora. They had been separated early on and, as not ideal as that was, Riku knew Sora could hold his own so he trusted him to be fine. Nonetheless, it eased him to see Sora alive and well, throwing a pirate off of the ship using an aeroga. He looked a little worse for wear and his chest was heaving with exertion but he was alive and relatively unharmed. There were even a few potions poking out from under his pirate coat. 

Then out of the corner of his eye Riku saw the glint of the barrel of a gun. One of the pirates lifted it, aiming it straight at Sora who was none the wiser. He wouldn’t see it in time and wouldn’t be able to react. In the blink of an eye, Riku saw it all play out in his mind.

He couldn’t lose Sora again.

Before he could even think, Riku burst across the deck and leaped, twisting his body to intercept the bullet. The only thing going through his head was  _ not again _ .

When the bullet pierced his side, Riku hardly felt it. It was like a pinch. If he hadn’t been staring down the barrel of a gun, he would’ve thought a piece of debris had just hit him. 

His landing was nothing graceful‒his shoulder slammed into the deck and his face scraped against the splintered wood. He got back to his feet as quick as he could, keyblade materializing in his hand. But as he was getting his feet back under him, something rocked the ship and sent him stumbling. What the hell had hit them?

And then he blacked out.

* * *

When Riku came to, it was slow and with a lot of effort. He felt sluggish and heavy, like someone had filled his body with lead. He almost let himself drift back off but then a very intense burning in his right side made itself known. 

He struggled to open his eyes, his vision blurry and black around the edges. His ears were ringing and everything swayed making his stomach roll. Using most of his strength, Riku gently touched his side and hissed. He shakily pulled his fingers away to examine the blood staining them. Right. He was injured. He had been shot by a pirate. That wasn’t good.

He let his arm drop back to his side and blinked, attempting to focus on what was going on around him. There was some sort of black blob near him and other shapes moving around him. As the ringing in his ears lessened he could hear screams and shouts. 

Riku placed his palms against the wood and started to push himself up. His right side screamed and his vision went white, knocking him right back down. Right, he had been  _ shot _ . Placing his hand against his side, careful to not touch the wound, he used what little MP he had to push a weak cure spell into it. A gasp forced itself from his throat as the wound started to close. It wouldn’t do the job completely but it would have to do for now.

Struggling past the pain, he pushed himself up until he was on his knees and he looked around the ship. Everything was still blurry and unclear but there were less shapes moving around. The black blob was still there and, judging by the darkness he could feel radiating off of it, it was a heartless. 

Riku went to summon his keyblade but when he lifted his right arm pain shot down his side. He squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his teeth, hissing in pain but he forced his arm to stay up. His keyblade appeared in his grasp and he readied it.

But then the heartless disappeared. The dark blob vanished from view and the feeling of darkness along with it. And there was another figure coming at him.

“Riku!”

Sora launched himself at Riku and wrapped his arms around him, burying his head into his chest. The force of the hug knocked Riku back onto his ass and jerked his wound sending a spike of pain through him. “Ah! Sora!”

Sora didn’t move but a curaga spell washed over him. His wounded side went numb while it was knit back together by the magic and the lost blood was replaced, washing away the haze in Riku’s head. He breathed a sigh of relief at his recovery.

Now clear headed and stable, he looked around the deck of the ship for any threats. The pirates were gone and he could see the ship already on the horizon. Holes covered the deck and if the ship wasn’t magical it would probably be half sunk. The masts were in tatters and wouldn’t be catching wind any time soon. They had some work to do before it would look like a proper ship again.

Riku gently nudged Sora. “Sora, we need to start repairing the ship.”

His friend didn’t lessen his grip on him or go to move away, though. He remained latched onto Riku and it took him a moment to realize that Sora was shaking.

Oh. Oh shit.

Riku readjusted himself so he could gather Sora up into his arms and rub his back, making calming shushing noises. “Hey, it’s okay. I’m okay, the pirates are gone. Everything’s okay.”

Sora sobbed and hiccupped into his shirt, bunching up the back of his coat and Riku continued attempting to calm him down. It reminded him of times when they were little and Sora would be scared by a nightmare or a scary movie. It’d been a long time since then and a lot had happened, but the feeling of Sora in his arms was familiar nonetheless.

Finally Sora pulled away. Riku was taken aback to find bloodshot eyes glaring daggers at him. He was a wreck with tears cutting streaks down his dirt caked face. He was still trembling and hiccuping but his teeth were barred and his eyes were narrowed in accusation. He didn’t move away from Riku, his hands resting on his shoulders and grasping the collar of his coat.

“How could you  _ do _ that, Riku!” Sora demanded. “You-you can’t just do that! You could’ve  _ died! _ ”

“And you could’ve too,” Riku replied, keeping his voice even and calm. “But we’re both fine. Everything’s fine.”

“ _ It’s not! _ ” Sora cried, yanking down on Riku’s collar. “You can’t just- you were-were shot! I-I heard the shot and I saw you and I thought…” He choked on a sob, squeezing more tears from his eyes. “ _ I can’t lose you! _ ”

He dissolved back into sobs and Riku pulled him back to his chest, tucking his head underneath his chin. He resumed rubbing circles into Sora’s back and doing his best to soothe him. 

They sat there for a bit with only the sounds of Sora’s crying, Riku’s gentle hushes, the creeks of the ship, and the waves. The bitter wind of the cloudy day nipped at them, their damp clothing not helping at all, but it was easy enough to ignore.

After a while, Sora’s cries died down into whimpers and he sagged into Riku, clearly exhausted. 

“Sora,” Riku began, “I’m sorry I scared you. There are a thousand ways that I could’ve handled that better. I was stupid and reacted without thinking.”

Sora sniffled and nodded against his chest.

“But I won’t apologize for protecting you. It’s been six months, but it still feels like it was yesterday that I was running around Quadratum looking for you.” He could clearly remember the dark city lit up by neon signs and billboards. Sora’s crystalized form still haunted his dreams. “I can’t lose you again. I won’t.”

His friend pulled away and looked at him, blue eyes narrowed and bloodshot. His face was flushed and tearstained with snot dripping from his nose. He sniffled a bit and wiped at his nose with his dirty sleeve. Then he hit Riku on the shoulder.

“Ow!” Riku cried more out of surprise than pain. “What was that for?”

“Because you’re stupid,” Sora retorted. 

Riku sighed and his shoulders slumped. “Okay, I deserved that. I am stupid and I’m sorry.”

“You better be. Don’t do that again.” Sora leaned back in, resting his head on Riku’s chest. “I can’t lose you.”

Riku wrapped his arms around Sora once again, holding home close. “I won’t, I promise. Keyblade Master’s honor.”

Sora’s hum of acknowledgement vibrated against his chest and they fell back into silence.

Some Keyblade Master Riku was too. Trained in combat and powerful magic yet his first instinct is to block a bullet with his body. He could’ve used a reflect spell or dark shield, or he could’ve hit the gun out of the pirate’s hand with a well aimed spell. But, no, he recklessly threw himself in front of the bullet. If Master Yen Sid or Aqua ever found out, he would get a lecture or five.

As he had told Sora, though, he would never apologize for protecting his friends. He’d accepted the keyblade from Terra when he was a kid to give him the strength to protect what mattered most to him. His journey to becoming a Keyblade Master had been full of mistakes and losing sight of what really mattered, but now he was on the right path and would keep on it. He would protect his friends with his life. However, he should probably be a little smarter about it and not put his life at risk unless absolutely necessary.

Riku wasn’t sure how long they sat there on the deck of the ship, Sora still in his lap and not planning on moving anytime soon. The sky steadily got darker and the temperature dropped a bit although the humidity was there to combat it. Once the sun had set, though, he decided it was time to get up and going.

“Sora, come on.” Riku shook Sora awake, unsurprised that his friend had fallen into a nap. “We have to get back to the Gummi ship soon before Kairi hunts us down.”

Sora groaned and pouted, looking at him with bleary sleepy eyes, but he got up and stretched. When his eyes swept the deck of the ship, he winced. “Oh. Yikes.”

“Yeah, you better start finding some crabs while I patch up what I can,” Riku told him.

“I’ll swim around and see what I can find. Be back in a bit.” Sora dove over the ship’s railing and disappearing into the Caribbean sea with a splash. 

Riku huffed out a laugh, unable to hold back a fond smile, and headed down into the ship’s hold. 

**Author's Note:**

> Googling "how does it feel to be shot?" for a Kingdom Hearts fic always is a good sign, right?  
> Thanks for reading! If you liked what you read, please feel free to leave a comment and/ or a kudos! Also be sure to check out my other works! <3


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